Keeping up with the Bragassas: This is the road that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend!

In all seriousness, I know that I-40 probably isn't the longest road in the United States but I would like to argue that it might just be the flattest. We drove 600 miles yesterday on the flattest road I have ever seen. When we got in the car in Amarillo yesterday, we drove 280 miles to Albuquerque, NM and then 317 to Flagstaff, AZ. It truly is beautiful out here - it's a completely different kind of landscape than what we were accustomed to in Georgia. Instead of the tall, needle filled, Georgia pines, we see flat cow pastures, grass filled planes, and tumbleweed/cactus infested desert. For some reason, the sky really looks bigger out here...I guess it's just because we can see for miles and miles!

We also keep running into Indian Reservations and driving through Indian Nations. So far, we have driven through the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Choctaw, and Hopi nations and we have seen signs for numerous reservations. In addition, we have driven through a few National Parks such as The Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. We got there too late to drive through it but the interstate cuts through part of it and it was very pretty.

Yesterday, we also got to see the continental divide. I didn't really think that this was a physical structure, I just knew that it was the point on the continent where the rivers/runoffs flow different directions - on the west side of the divide, water drains to the Pacific Ocean and to the east side of the divide, water drains to the Atlantic Ocean or to the Gulf of Mexico. The continental divide consisted of huge cliffs that were all shades of reds and browns - the way the sun lights them up is just awesome!

Now I know many of you have heard of Route 66...currently it is not used as a major interstate like it use to be but it still exists. It basically parallels I-40 and is a simple 2 lane road goes from somewhere in the east, to at least Arizona - I'll let you know if it goes further still tomorrow. Yesterday, Brian said he wanted to drive on Route 66 just to say he did it, so we took a detour for about 2 miles somewhere in Texas and drove on it. All of the old motels and gas stations from back in the day were still there and some of them were still functioning...I don't know if I would stay in one of the motels but that's besides the point.

As for Brian and myself, we are hanging in there! Brian hasn't been feeling very well and seems to have a cold or some type of sinus infection. He's been taking some medicine to help and has been a trooper...he's still up for driving to the Grand Canyon today! I'm so excited! We'll stay here in Flagstaff tonight and then drive on to Las Vegas tomorrow so we can be there for the 4th of July! I can't believe we made it this far!